Jet’s 3 Dead Engines Out of Fuel

The United Airlines Boeing 747 that landed outside Tokyo on Monday with only one engine operating had run out of fuel for the other three, aviation sources in and out of the U.S. government said today.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, said that the tanks supplying fuel to the three dead engines were found to be dry when the plane, whose flight originated in Los Angeles, landed. The fourth tank had about 20,000 pounds of fuel remaining and was in no imminent danger of also going dry. It was not known whether the fuel problem had been caused by a pilot error or by a mechanical problem with the plane’s fuel-switching equipment.